New Discretion an Open Question

While much of the recent public theater has focused a spotlight on the more glamorous wetlands issues- the delineation maunual, sequencing, classification, and mitigation banking- the minor dramas of daily life under the §404 program are, more often than not, played out according to the script of the nationwide permit program. On November 22, 1991, the Army Corps of Engineers concluded a year-long effort to revise and reissue its regulations governing the availability of nationwide permits (NWPs) under §404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The final rule, effective January 21, 1992, comes at a critical moment in the difficult life of the Corps' controversial regulatory program.